Railway-car fender.



T DOUGHERTY.

RAILWAY CAR FENDER. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 6. 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHE I.

III/VENTOR TDozy/zerii A TTOR/i/EYS Fatented Jim. 8,1918.

T. DOUGHERTY.

RAILWAY CAR FENDER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. s 19H.

L25S,@l%; Patented Jan. 8,1918.

2 SHBETS-SHEET 2- TDozy/zer? ATTORNEYS TED %TATE% PATENT @ldlhllCE TERENCE IDOUGHERTY, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

RAILWAY-CAB FENDER.

weenie;

Application filed. September'G, 1917.

To gall/whom it may concern Be itknown, that I,,TERENCE DoUei-Inn'rr, a citizen of the United States, and a resldent of the city of New York, borough of Brookdanger due to pedestrians who chance to be a in the path Ofal'DOVGIDGRt of the cars,

More definitely stated one of the principal objects, of. this invention is to provide a fender for a railway car the same comprising relatively movable pad portions adapted in one position to receive the impact of an obstacle on the; track andreduce the extent of injury that would otherwise result from suchoccurrence, and in another position to v be foldedfand housed beneath" the platform of th'ecar, i I A I I j Another. objectiof the inventionis to pro vide'a fender-*having a substantially horizontal ortion carried with-its front end elevated mm the track in position to be impinged against byan obstacle or person on the track and SO -.CO1'lStI'LlCtGCl that when so struck the front end-thereof will automaticallytilt downso as to facilitate the recep tion;-,of' the person or obstacle thereupon.

With the; foregoinguand other objects'in View: :the. invention consists, I in the arrange ment THILClLCOIRblIIQIlElOHnOfparts hereinafter described and claimed, and 'whlle the haven-- tlOIlqlSjIlOtrIQStIiCtQdtQ the exact details of construction. ,disclosed or suggested herein, a

still for the purpose of illustrating a practical embodiment thereof reference is had to theuaccompanying drawings, inwhich like reference characters. designate the same parts 1n:the severalvlews, .andln which- Figure 1 is a front perspective View showing i my improvement in normal operative positiona. p Y Fig;;2 is side elevation, parts being in section, indicating the folded or nestedposition of "the. fenden- Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section showing the parts .in;.full lines in the position of Fig. 1 and indicating in dotted lines 5 the dropped position of the platform pad and apron.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan, 8, 1918;

Serial No. 198,008.

Fig. l is a sectional detail on the line H of 3; and

F 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional ides tail. through one front corner of the device,

the plane of the section being parallel to the direction of movement of the car.

In carrying out this lll'RPI'OVElllGi'lf in. a practical form I provide afender comprising two main pad or upholstered portions 10 and 11, the former being adapted to be car-v ried in operative position in a substantially vertical plane on or in front of the'cari where i-' will be supported by ineansiof a hook 12 or its equivalent cooperatingiwith the sill 13at the front end of the car platform 14. The other pad is hinged at 15 on the front ends of a pair of channel barslfi slidable longitudinally along a pair of fixed bars 1? suspended upon pairs of hangerslS on the opposite sides of the car each having a hooked shaped lower end 18 as indicated in Fig. The axis of the hinge 15 is arranged justfback of the transverse center 3 of the pad .11 so that when-the rear end on edgeof the pad 11 is not supported the front end of thepad will drop freely until it strikes the track or a pair of rollers 19" dropped upon the rails20 of the track bring i the front end of the pad well downwso as to facilitate the delivery upon the pad of the person or other object that is struck."

As willbe noted especially in-Fig; 3 lthew rear end of the pad 11 is supported directly upon the upper faces of the channel bars 16 and is held in such position Joy ymeanssizofx links 21 jointed, together at. "22 and '5 A toggle having their opposite ends pivotedhtoiathe adjacent edges of the twopads, 1O and:.111' ,:;,a

the pad 10 being-elevated at this time f-di-nrectly above the rear edge of the horizontal I pad and separated therefrom byzavsp'acer equal to the length of the toggle 'links'cwhenextended. A spr1ng23 connected at 1ts :rear. 1

end at 24 to the channel bar 16 and at its front end to the pivot 22, serves toshold the toggle link straight and bearing against a 2 lug 25, or Ills equivalent, carried by the upper;

pad which serves to prevent. the rearward movement or buckling of the toggle link:

The upper pad 1 0 is braced at its lowervaedge by meansof a bar 26, the upper or rear-lend" of which is connected to a sprocket chain 27 operating in a horizontal plane just beneath" the platform 14 and over the sprocket wheels 28 and 2 9, the latter wheel being connected to a vertical crank shaft 30 having a handle or crank 31 at its upper end for manipulation.

Any suitable means such as a pawl or ratchet device 32 may be employed to hold the crank shaft 30 from rotation and thus the brace rod 26 is normally held in fixed position. IVhile the springs "23 act normally to hold the links 21 in straight verticalposition against the lugs the reaction of the springs acting through the bars 16 tends to hold the horizontal pad 11 projected forwardly. If now an obstacle be struck by the front end or edge of the pad 11 at least two immediate results take place, namely, the pad as a whole is forced rearwardly slightly, such impact being cushioned by the springs 23 and this fact in itself constitutes u a safeguard to a certain extent. As a second result of this impact of the rearward movementof the pad 11, the joint at 2:2 is broken permitting the pad 11 to tilt downwardly in front and upwardly at the rear as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3. Thus will the person or other object on the track be delivered directly upon or within the fender.

33 indicates an apron secured permanently at its upper edge to the pad 10 and having detachable snap connection at 3% at the front corners of the pad 11. This apron constitutes a cover or protector for the upholstered portions of the device whereby rain, dirt, dust or the like will be practically kept therefrom. The sides of the fender are inclosed by fixed triangular aprons 35 held permanently in position along the sides of the right angle upon the edges of the pad 1 and apron 33. The aprons 35 being relatively thin and flexible and having practically negligible thickness will simply collapse or fold and lie between the two pads 10 and 11 when the fender is collapsed as in Fig. 2.

In the practical operation of this improvement if an obstacle or person is struck by the front edge of the pad 11 causing the pad to move relatively rearwardly, this movement will cause the breaking of the toggle and permit the tilting downwardly of the front end of the pad. It will, of course, be understood that the impact of the object against the apron 33 will detach the same from the fasteners 3% so as not to pro-- vent the downward tilting movement of the pad. The pad 11 may easily be restored to its normal horizontal position either by lifting up on the front end thereof or the action of the springs 23 straightening and locking the device at the toggle links.

When it is desired to collapse or retract the fender the vertical pad 10 is released at which time the whole fender will be nested beneath the platform 14. Obviously areverse movement of the crank shaft will cause 7 the projection forwardly of the fender and the elevation of the pad 10 to its operative position.

I claim:

1. In a fender for railway cars, the combination of a plurality of pads arranged normally at an angle to each other, toggle link devices connecting the adjacent edges 7 of the pads, means pivotally supporting the lower pad providing for tilting movement thereof downwardly 1n front and out of nor mal horizontal position when the toggle links are broken. and means acting upon the toggle links to hold them rigid preventing the tilting of the lower pad. 7

2. In a railwav ear fender, the combination' of an upright pad, means to hold the same in upright position, a normally hori-' zontal pad, toggle links connecting the adj a-' cent edges of the two pads, said toggle links being adapted to breakforwardlvthe spring acting upon the joint of the links to hold them stiff. and means to cause the toggle links to break against the force of the springs when the lower pad strikes an obstacle thereby permitting the lower pad to tilt downwardly at its front end.

3. The combination with a car platform I and pairs of hanger projecting therefrom,

of a horizontal bar mounted upon each pair of hangers, a channelbar slidable upon each horizontal bar, a pad pivotally connected to the front ends of the channel members, and means acting upon the pad to draw the same and the channel members rearwardly or forwardly along the first mentioned bars.

4. Ina fender for railway cars, the combination ofa pad. an endless power element movable in a horizontal plane at the rear of said pad, a bar extending between the power element and the pad, and means to operate the power element from the platform so as to draw the pad rearwardly beneath the platform or move it forwardly into operative Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each. by addressing the Commissioner of Patents;

Washington, D. G. 

